Daily Fantasy Baseball Picks: Starting pitcher rankings, advice for May 12

Our daily fantasy baseball picks continue with starting pitcher rankings and advice for Thursday's MLB slate.

Even though there are only eight games today, there are still a lot of quality pitchers on the hill. All the games are at night too, so it's going to feel like a full slate of options as far as pitching goes. 

MORE FANTASY: DFS lineup | Prospect rankings | Waiver wire 

Finding enough quality hitters for your lineup could be a little tougher, though, so you may need to save some cash on the mound to pay up a few places in the field. 

With that in mind, let's take a look at the full starting pitcher rankings and picks. As usual, we'll also have daily fantasy baseball hitter picks and the DFS Playbook from Fantasy Alarm to help you find the best values on FanDuel and DraftKings. Good luck!

Daily fantasy baseball picks

Splurge: Vincent Velasquez, Phillies at Braves. If you're not paying up for Clayton Kershaw, I think you can save quite a bit of cash and still get ace stats with Velasquez ($9,100 on FD; $10,900 on DK) at Atlanta against Aaron Blair. He's a much better value on FD, though. If you're looking for a cheaper ace on DK, check out Zack Greinke ($8,400).  

Sell: Johnny Cueto, Giants at D-backs. Normally I'm all over Cueto's value ($10,300 on FD; $10,400 on DK) as a cheap ace, but I'll pass today at these higher prices in a tough road matchup against Geinke and Co. There are safer options in this price range (or lower). 

MORE: Hitter picks | DFS Playbook PRO | Play FanDuel

Save: Jimmy Nelson, Brewers vs. Padres. Nelson ($7,600 on FD; $9,200 on DK) is the fifth-cheapest starter on FanDuel, which makes his matchup against the Padres look even better. He costs quite a bit more on DK, so you can look at Adam Wainwright ($7,200) or Dallas Keuchel ($6,900) there instead. By the way, the price discrepancies between FD and DK are getting annoying; e.g. Keuchel is the fourth-highest SP on FD (no thanks) and the third-cheapest on DK (interesting). Go figure. 

Editor's note: Play one-day fantasy baseball leagues for real money at FanDuel! Claim your free entry and deposit bonus here.

Daily fantasy baseball rankings

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